Its been a long time since I edited any of my books, at least 10 months. In that time I have been busy preparing my masters degree, a process that proved to be quite the writing workout.

A week ago I opened one of my older books, the one I have been posting some of its drafts on here (Book of Kayal: Hands of Fate) and started going through it once more. The improvements I have been doing are striking. Everywhere I look, there seems to be room for editing. A touch here…a touch there, until I ended up re-writing about half of the 40% I’ve gone through.

I have to say that the editing process has been this extensive for two main reasons: (1) I have wrote over 400,000 words in total since then; and (2) I have completed two more stories in the series since then and am working on a third one after HoF. Needless to say, the first has directly improved my writing skill while the second has resulted in me adjusting the world accordingly.

Unlike my former attempts at editing, this one has been entertaining. I can’t get enough of this first go, mostly because I have completely forgotten the story and the characters that have been included in the sequels have significantly developed since then.

So to all those who love to write but hate to edit, think about coming back to your books after finishing another story. It will help with the tediousness of the editing process.

It has been a while since I wrote on this blog and reported my progress. That was, unfortunately, because I have not had much time these past two years and I could not write to my hearts content. Two days ago, however, I finally managed to make some time and squeeze in some writing. I managed to write about 12,000 words in these two days in a binge-writing-type phenomena. I finally finished my fifth installment of the series I have been working on. It has been so long that I missed it so much.

The other day I was chatting with someone about writing and he told me that there was this study about writing which made people happier and more productive in their work. I found the article and read it and it made a compelling case. I really do feel that after I write things seem a little brighter, often blindingly.

When we think that we are most busy is when we need to write the most.

About a month ago I started working on my new book, a poor choice considering that I have not yet completed my fourth installment of Book of Kayal, because I found myself in a unique position to learn about writing from some incredibly talented writers and professors.

This one, however, is different from all my former stories, mainly because it is an exaggerated and science-fiction version of an interesting former experience of mine, which I chose not to disclose at the moment. Also I expect to improve my skills writing this book at an accelerated rate compared to the other books because of the vast wealth of resources available to me, including mentoring.

Yet I still continue to develop my own writing process and refrain from using that of someone else, unless for exercising purposes, and only pick up elements which I find potentially useful and testing them. One of the new additions I have come to explore is the ‘choice diagram’, essentially a diagram for all the main characters in the story which states the choices they have for all decisions contributing to plot development.

For example, the first chapter/part in my new story, which I decided to name ‘Palladium Falls’, is about a man trying to put together a case stating that robots – specifically a highly, self-evolving type of robots – should have their own freedom. The first set of choices he face is to go through the process through the courts or through the scientific community, he chooses the first. Then he faces a choice of bringing a robot to be questioned, bearing in mind that it would provide both him and his opponent the opportunity to take advantage of this situation, or bring one of the scientists working on the self-evolving program supplied to the robots.

The choices go on as such until the conclusion is reached. At the moment I am experimenting with simple ‘choice diagrams’ considering that I don’t really understand its potential impact yet, or whether it is better to have a complicated/detailed one or a simple one, yet I intend to develop a set of integrated diagrams by which all choices made by the main characters are influenced by one another. Essentially I plan to have this diagram visually depict the perspectives of the characters as they continue to interact and develop.

Maybe this is a completely useless idea, or maybe it is the best idea I have come up with since I decided to pick up writing.

I have not had the opportunity to write much lately, thus there was nothing to post about, due to an interesting and unexpected development in my life, I have gotten into Yale to prepare for my second Master’s degree. It has been busy and extremely interesting. Next semester, however, I intend to take up a new sci-fi project that should put all the skills I learnt into good use. I will keep you posted about it when I start working on this piece.

I finally got some time to go on a writing bonanza and started working on the third part of my current five-part-book. I noticed that as I proceeded,my interests shifted and I forgot what message I originally wanted to send, even though I prepared the semi-detailed outline I previously mentioned, and where I wanted the story to go.

I came across another problem, the chapters started slowly loosing flow – not in terms of the story, but in terms of writing style – and it occurred to me that another formula was needed inside the one I originally followed.

Just to keep things updated, I will say a little about the format I loosely follow:

I start with a ‘golden idea’, a unique message I want to send

Then I move to the outlining of my 5-chapter part system, where each book is composed of parts consisting of five chapters each

After the outline I move to the detailed outline of each part as I work on it, so its simply a module-based way of expanding the first outline that clearly states the goal, characters and obstacles for achieving this goal

Then I start writing the part

When I am done with the part,I start repeating steps (3) and (4) until the book is finished

Finally, I revise the content and update it, trying to add small details I feel are relevant or delete ones not related to the story or of little value

But then I noticed over the past few days that the stories, while focusing on the goal and the general progression of the idea, lacks enough descriptive feel. In short, the story and dialogue proceeds just fine, albeit in a liner fashion of which I do not entirely approve, but the setting is becoming ignored.

I ended up having the last chapter composed of great, meaningful conversations that take place nowhere.

This made me realize that I need to further add to the general formula I have been using on an even smaller, more detailed level, that of each conversation and situation. Perhaps this is simply not my style, and I personally know that many people do not really care about the setting and just want to get the message, but still it bothers me that it is not yet coming to me as second nature.

Now I know nothing about writing songs and poems, and whatever I know about writing in general is fairly limited, save for one thing: they are amazingly effective and keeping a story in mind.

For the past nine months I have been struggling to get any writing done due to time constraint. The one thing I noticed, however, was that I often had free time in no longer than 15-30 minute chunks. While this was not enough for me to write anything, for it takes me some time to get in the mood of writing and get my thoughts straight, it enough for me to write a verse or short song/poem about one of my stories. This did a good job of keeping it in mind and getting new ideas.

My current work in progress is a continuation of my series “Book of Kayal’ and reached a total of just under 30k words at the moment, about a third of its expected completed length, and I tried applying a new outlining method which, unfortunately, is not working very well for me. I found myself deviating from it lately, even more so when I started writing these little songs, and will have to go through several revisions of the outline by the time I am completed with the story. I cannot say if this is a better thing for the story in general or not, but it is certainly distracting me from progressing with it.

I will continue to keep you updated as something new comes about. Perhaps I will share one of my amateurish attempts at making a relevant song for one of my stories.

So I haven’t been posting anything here in a month or two due to my abnormally busy schedule. I am starting to understand just how difficult it is for non-full-time writers to finish any of their work.

I’ve had a week off and used it to work on my fifth book, which had been left untouched for over a month. To my surprise, I found myself completely lost, both in terms of story and mood. It took me two days of rereading the chapters I write and fiddling with the outline to adjust it to my current mood, or perhaps to get into the mood which I intended to write with, and finally continue.

Writing a book while keeping the same general thoughts and emotions during the process is critical, I noticed, for the harmonious flow. Thus I suggest any writer to work on your book every day, or at least every other day, to keep doing progress in it and, most importantly, to keep it in mind and heart.

If I had not prepared an outline, the whole 15k words I wrote would have surely gone to waste.

I was working on some lore for my fifth fantasy novel and decided to share it here. Let me know what you guys think.

The Seven Houses of Light were Salus’ main solution to battle the threat of corruption from external entities in Nosgard. After embarking on his quest, Deliverance, Salus, the Demigod Emperor Servak’s youngest son of two, realized that the agents of corruption are many and that they act as powerful forces to suppress the potential of Nosgard and its inhabitants.

Because the agents of corruption often worked in both hidden and revealed manners, Salus thought he should have plans to address both types of interference. The Seven Houses of Lights were established to, primarily, battle the type of corruption that requires no revealing, the ones who were acknowledged by the public to be a threat.

In order to strengthen the unity of Nosgard, a council of fourteen active members and one hidden member, initially Salus, was established. They would convene and decide on the path the Republic of Nosgard, formerly an empire, would take, peacefully and with mutual understanding.

Each house was formed by the official unity, usually marriage, of two opposite and distinguished Nosgardian individuals. These houses then would operate individually to generate money so they could finance whatever military, economic or developmental projects were required and decided upon to be in the benefit of Nosgard.

In return for their social status, the ruling families of the Seven Houses of Light were required to educate their children diligently and send them to roam the lands of Nosgard and beyond to learn as much as they can about it and its people. They were taught to become leaders with a strong sense of belonging, understanding and loyalty to the land.

Due to this condition, the Seven Houses of Light often lost many royal members during their dangerous education and endeavors, knows as The Pilgrimage; a risk dictated when they were first founded. The survivors of The Pilgrimage, however, became the pillars by which the Republic of Nosgard stood strong and the reason behind the continuous strengthening of the Seven Houses of Light.

In time, the Houses decided that the unity of Nosgard required a mutual goal, expansion, and began building armies to conquer the surrounding lands. The Eastern Charge was the first conquest sent to the Trakian Isles, and its soldiers were under the employ of the House of Egtahd.

Although the Seven Houses of Light were not affiliated to any city or ruler, only to the Republic of Nosgard, they were each located in a different city where they held their primary operations and responsibilities. Thus the Seven Houses of Light, in time, gained influence and loyalty from different cities, depending on their location. The House of Temperance, for example, was located in Gallecia and recruited most of its members from the city. There was, nevertheless, no rule or condition that they would adhere to recruiting and employing people from certain cities. Anyone was welcomed to join whatever House they wished, should the Houses be interested.

I discovered that naming things often delays my writing and prevents me from ‘riding a thought wave’, if that makes any sense. Instead of wasting time searching for names and titles, I started preparing a key-type chart. It goes something like this:

(1)-main character

(2)-small town, windy climate

(3)-support character, middle-aged female, shy, blond

(4)-main character father, old, deceased

(5)-special Greek-derived art

(6)-imperial city

That is just something I picked up a few days ago. This saves me the research to later, and allows me to freely explore the concepts I am brewing.